Latest news from Biophysical Society on Newswise en-us Copyright 2024 Newswise 115 31 / /images/newswise-logo-rss.gif /articles/biophysical-society-announces-the-results-of-its-2024-elections/?sc=rsin /articles/biophysical-society-announces-the-results-of-its-2024-elections/?sc=rsin Wed, 07 Aug 2024 12:05:50 EST ROCKVILLE, MD - Karen Fleming has been elected President-elect of the Biophysical Society (BPS). She will assume the office of President-elect at the 2025 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, California and begin her term as President during the 2026 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California. Fleming is a Professor of Biophysics at Johns Hopkins University. Biophysical Society /articles/3d-ice-printing-can-create-artificial-blood-vessels-in-engineered-tissue/?sc=rsin /articles/3d-ice-printing-can-create-artificial-blood-vessels-in-engineered-tissue/?sc=rsin Sat, 10 Feb 2024 08:00:00 EST Over 100,000 individuals in the United States are currently in need of organ transplants. The demand for organs, such as hearts, kidneys, and livers, far exceeds the available supply and people sometimes wait years to receive a donated organ. Biophysical Society /articles/new-method-could-detect-early-ovarian-cancer-from-urine-samples/?sc=rsin /articles/new-method-could-detect-early-ovarian-cancer-from-urine-samples/?sc=rsin Sat, 10 Feb 2024 08:00:00 EST Ovarian cancer is hard to diagnose in its early stages because it has vague symptoms, such as constipation, bloating, and back pain. Biophysical Society /articles/why-ventilators-can-be-tough-on-preemie-lungs/?sc=rsin /articles/why-ventilators-can-be-tough-on-preemie-lungs/?sc=rsin Sat, 10 Feb 2024 08:00:00 EST Many premature infants need mechanical ventilation to breathe. However, prolonged ventilation can lead to problems like respiratory diseases or ventilation-induced injury.Jonas Naumann and Mareike Zink study the physics of mechanical stress from ventilation at Leipzig University, in Leipzig, Germany and discovered some of the mechanisms that explain why premature lungs are especially sensitive to stress. Biophysical Society /articles/using-ion-beams-to-improve-brain-microscopy/?sc=rsin /articles/using-ion-beams-to-improve-brain-microscopy/?sc=rsin Sat, 10 Feb 2024 08:00:00 EST Improving the way scientists can see the microscopic structures of the brain can improve our understanding of a host of brain diseases, like Alzheimer's or multiple sclerosis. Studying these diseases is challenging and has been limited by accuracy of available models.To see the smallest parts of cells, scientists often use a technique called electron microscopy. Biophysical Society /articles/how-ancient-sea-creatures-can-inform-soft-robotics/?sc=rsin /articles/how-ancient-sea-creatures-can-inform-soft-robotics/?sc=rsin Sat, 10 Feb 2024 07:00:00 EST Soft robotics is the study of creating robots from soft materials, which has the advantage of flexibility and safety in human interactions. These robots are well-suited for applications ranging from medical devices to enhancing efficiency in various tasks. Biophysical Society /articles/faster-monkeypox-mpox-testing-through-crispr/?sc=rsin /articles/faster-monkeypox-mpox-testing-through-crispr/?sc=rsin Sat, 10 Feb 2024 07:00:00 EST Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a rare viral disease that is spread through physical contact between people. Biophysical Society /articles/the-biophysical-journal-names-erdic-sezgin-the-2023-paper-of-the-year-early-career-investigator-awardee/?sc=rsin /articles/the-biophysical-journal-names-erdic-sezgin-the-2023-paper-of-the-year-early-career-investigator-awardee/?sc=rsin Fri, 09 Feb 2024 13:05:54 EST ROCKVILLE, MD - Erdic Sezgin, of Karolinska Institutet, Sweden will be honored as the recipient of the Biophysical Journal Paper of the Year-Early Career Investigator Award at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society, held February 10-14 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Biophysical Society /articles/meeting-wire-sent-2-6-2024/?sc=rsin /articles/meeting-wire-sent-2-6-2024/?sc=rsin Tue, 06 Feb 2024 11:05:28 EST Meeting wire sent 2-6-2024 Biophysical Society /articles/bps-celebrates-max-planck-humboldt-medal-awardee-kandice-tanner/?sc=rsin /articles/bps-celebrates-max-planck-humboldt-medal-awardee-kandice-tanner/?sc=rsin Fri, 29 Sep 2023 11:05:33 EST ROCKVILLE, MD - The Biophysical Society is honored to celebrate Kandice Tanner, a physicist and Senior Investigator at the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Tanner is being recognized for her pioneering work on the biophysics of the metastatic spread of cancer. Biophysical Society /articles/biophysical-society-announces-2024-society-fellows/?sc=rsin /articles/biophysical-society-announces-2024-society-fellows/?sc=rsin Thu, 21 Sep 2023 11:05:35 EST ROCKVILLE, MD - The Biophysical Society is proud to announce its 2024 Society Fellows. This award honors the Society's distinguished members who have demonstrated excellence in science and contributed to the expansion of the field of biophysics. Biophysical Society /articles/biophysical-society-names-2024-society-award-recipients/?sc=rsin /articles/biophysical-society-names-2024-society-award-recipients/?sc=rsin Wed, 13 Sep 2023 09:30:00 EST ROCKVILLE, MD - The Biophysical Society is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2024 Society Awards. These awards are very competitive in nature and are intended to recognize Society members for excellence in biophysics. The winners will be honored at the Society's 68th Annual Meeting being held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from February 10-14, 2024. Biophysical Society /articles/biophysical-society-announces-the-results-of-its-2023-elections/?sc=rsin /articles/biophysical-society-announces-the-results-of-its-2023-elections/?sc=rsin Tue, 15 Aug 2023 11:25:40 EST Lynmarie K. Thompson has been elected President-elect of the Biophysical Society (BPS). She will assume the office of President-elect at the 2024 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and begin her term as President during the 2025 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, California. Thompson is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass). Biophysical Society /articles/the-biophysical-journal-names-carlas-s-smith-the-2022-paper-of-the-year-early-career-investigator-awardee/?sc=rsin /articles/the-biophysical-journal-names-carlas-s-smith-the-2022-paper-of-the-year-early-career-investigator-awardee/?sc=rsin Fri, 24 Feb 2023 07:00:17 EST Carlas S. Smith, PhD, of Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands was honored as the recipient of the Biophysical Journal Paper of the Year-Early Career Investigator Award at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society, held February 18-22 in San Diego, California. This award recognizes the work of outstanding early career investigators in biophysics. Biophysical Society /articles/what-physicists-can-learn-from-shark-intestines/?sc=rsin /articles/what-physicists-can-learn-from-shark-intestines/?sc=rsin Sat, 18 Feb 2023 07:00:00 EST ROCKVILLE, MD - In 1920, inventor Nikola Tesla patented a type of pipe that he called a "valvular conduit," which was built to draw fluid in one direction without any moving parts or added energy, and has applications ranging from soft robotics to medical implants. In 2021, scientists discovered that sharks' spiral-shaped intestines work much the same way, favoring fluid flow in one direction--from head to pelvis. Biophysical Society /articles/how-ai-can-help-design-drugs-to-treat-opioid-addiction/?sc=rsin /articles/how-ai-can-help-design-drugs-to-treat-opioid-addiction/?sc=rsin Sat, 18 Feb 2023 07:00:00 EST ROCKVILLE, MD - Approximately three million Americans suffer from opioid use disorder, and every year more than 80,000 Americans die from overdoses. Opioid drugs, such as heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone and morphine, activate opioid receptors. Activating mu-opioid receptors leads to pain relief and euphoria, but also physical dependence and decreased breathing, the latter leading to death in the case of drug overdose. Biophysical Society /articles/a-tool-to-prevent-deaths-due-to-female-underrepresentation-in-clinical-trials/?sc=rsin /articles/a-tool-to-prevent-deaths-due-to-female-underrepresentation-in-clinical-trials/?sc=rsin Sat, 18 Feb 2023 07:00:00 EST ROCKVILLE, MD - Women are often underrepresented in cardiac clinical trials--yet they are at least at equally high risk of death due to cardiovascular disease, and at higher risk of developing drug-induced heart complications compared to men. Clinical trials of medicines generally rely on electrocardiograms (EKG) to measure a patient's heart's response to a medicine and determine its safety, yet males and females have a number of differences in their heart physiology that are reflected in consistent variations in their EKGs. Biophysical Society /articles/harnessing-plant-molecules-to-harvest-solar-energy/?sc=rsin /articles/harnessing-plant-molecules-to-harvest-solar-energy/?sc=rsin Sat, 18 Feb 2023 07:00:00 EST ROCKVILLE, MD - Our current solar panels aren't very efficient; they are only able to convert up to about 20 percent of the sun's energy into electricity. As a result, to generate a lot of electricity, the panels require a lot of space--sometimes leading forests to be cut down or farms to be replaced by solar. Biophysical Society /articles/how-covid-19-can-impact-the-heart/?sc=rsin /articles/how-covid-19-can-impact-the-heart/?sc=rsin Sat, 18 Feb 2023 07:00:00 EST ROCKVILLE, MD - COVID-19 infections can cause potentially life-threatening heart issues. Studies suggest that people with COVID-19 are 55% more likely to suffer a major adverse cardiovascular event, including heart attack, stroke and death, than those without COVID-19. They're also more likely to have other heart issues, like arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms) and myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle). Biophysical Society /articles/weaponizing-part-of-the-sars-cov-2-spike-protein-against-itself-to-prevent-infection/?sc=rsin /articles/weaponizing-part-of-the-sars-cov-2-spike-protein-against-itself-to-prevent-infection/?sc=rsin Sat, 18 Feb 2023 07:00:00 EST ROCKVILLE, MD - The virus that causes COVID-19, called SARS-CoV-2, uses its spike protein in order to stick to and infect our cells. The final step for the virus to enter our cells is for part of its spike protein to act like a twist tie, forcing the host cell's outer membrane to fuse with the virus. Kailu Yang, in the lab of Axel Brunger, colleagues at Stanford University, and collaborators at University of California Berkely, Harvard Medical School, and University of Finland have generated a molecule based on the twisted part of the spike protein (called HR2), which sticks itself onto the virus and prevents the spike protein from twisting. Biophysical Society